Cleats are fitting used to secure lines. The majority of cleats currently used have two horns protruding in opposite linear directions from a central stem. A rope or line is knotted to the horns and is typically guided by a distant chock. Chocks are fittings through which lines are led. Fairleads are fittings that change the direction of a line. Deadeyes are holes through which a line may be passed. Previously, most cleats, chocks, fairleads, and deadeyes have been employed separately, resulting in redundancy of fittings, additional boat weight, added cost, and increased probability of tangling a line or of tripping a crewman.
There are known devices formed as combinations of cleat, chocks, and deadeye. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,477,800 describes a device having a combined cleat and chock. The cleat includes two horizontally protruding horns that extend in opposite linear directions. Each horn has a curved inner surface for use in guiding the line. Facing each protruding horn in an aligned manner is a chock side horn that also has a curved inner surface. The side horns appear to allow a person to guide the line from either direction without having to remove the line from the device. All four of the horns of Lawrence are coaxially aligned. The outer upper surfaces on the side ends are sloped to help deflect a foot that is moving parallel to the device.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,477,801 describes a device that is similar to the above '800 patent device, except the components are not integrally formed as a single unit. This results in the '801 device having potentially less structural integrity than the '800 device and more expensive to attach.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,747,554, issued to Allen, discloses a combination chock 16 (formed as a cleat) and fairlead fitting 18 for boats and the like. The chock base and head portions are recessed in the entrance of an upwardly-open well at a corner in the top portion of a deck member. A passage forms a fairlead in a side surface of the deck member. The fairlead passage extends directly into the well at a level beneath the chock.
The above devices as well as others suffer from various disadvantages. In particular, none of the devices are particularly useful in redirecting a line in other than a direction normal to the cleat. Even in the case of the Lawrence patents '800 and '801, a line that is directed in a non-normal manner will undesirably rub against the side horn inner surfaces where the line-to-surface contact area is relatively small. Over time, the line will fray and break more easily.
Another disadvantage of known devices is their inability to encourage a chocked line to stay therewithin. It is very important to ensure that the line does not come out of its location. The horizontally-aligned horns of the '800 and '801 devices can again be unsatisfactory because they do not offer an efficient resistance to the line lifting out. In some cases, it can be desirable to have a device that could avoid initially catching lines (and toes) that are not actually meant to enter the device. The '800 and '801 do not appear to provide this feature either, since their configurations would tend to indiscriminately catch any line or object that passes over them.
These disadvantages limit the types of line securing circumstances for which prior combination devices are useful. Thus, a need exists for a device that combines a cleat, chock, fairlead and deadeye in which the fairleads will guide the line in a non-normal manner without causing unnecessary stress on the line that might make it fray or snap. The ideal device would additionally be formed for use in specific cleating applications so that the user could quickly attach the line and/or readily secure the line without fear of the line undoing or letting slip. The device would also offer a means of preventing any unwanted lines from snagging at the device location while keeping assigned lines in place. The present invention is directed to fulfilling this need.